NorWeST stream temperature scenario maps were developed at a 1-kilometer resolution using spatial statistical stream network models. Stream temperature data used to fit the temperature model that created the scenario maps were screened using a consistent set of criteria to ensure the use of accurate temperature measurements.
Resources
LCCs have produced a wealth of informational documents, reports, fact sheets, webinars and more to help support resource managers in designing and delivering conservation at landscape scales.
NorWeST summer stream temperature scenarios were developed for all rivers and streams in the western U.S. from the > 20,000 stream sites in the NorWeST database where mean August stream temperatures were recorded. The scenarios include: 1) Adobe PDF format maps depicting historical and future modeled mean August stream temperatures, 2) graphs (JPG format) demonstrating the accuracy of the temperature model, and 3) GIS shapefiles (SHP format) representing the spatially modeled stream temperatures.
A map service on the www that allows users to zoom to a specific area and the modeled prediction of the stream temperatures at 2040.
A map service on the www that allows users to zoom to a specific area and the modeled prediction of the stream temperatures at 2080.
A map service on the www that allows users to zoom to a specific area and see the historic august stream temperatures based on collected thermograph data.
A map service on the www that allows users to zoom to a specific area and see thermograph point locations in streams that have collected stream temeprature data.
A map service on the www that allows users to see the NorWeST project's production unit watersheds.
Isaak, D., S. Wenger, E. Peterson, J. Ver Hoef, C. Luce, S. Hostetler, J. Dunham, J. Kershner, B. Roper, D. Nagel, D. Horan, G. Chandler, S. Parkes, S. Wollrab. 2015. Development and application of NorWeST stream temperature climate scenarios for the Pacific Northwest. North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative webinar, January 27.
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NorWeST |
Temperature in aquatic ecosystems is a fundamentally important property that dozens of resource agencies across the Northwest routinely monitor. Significant amounts of stream temperature data have been collected during the last two decades, but strategic coordination of these collection efforts within and among agencies is lacking and many redundancies exist.
Presenters:
Seth Wenger, is a staff scientist for Trout Unlimited whose current research focuses on potential effects of climate change on fish. He holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Georgia.
The NorWeST webpage hosts stream temperature data and climate scenarios in a variety of user-friendly digital formats for streams and rivers across the western U.S. The temperature database was compiled from hundreds of biologists and hydrologists working for >100 resource agencies and contains >200,000,000 hourly temperature recordings at >20,000 unique stream sites.
Greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus (Bonaparte) currently occupy approximately half of their historical distribution across western North America. Sage-grouse are a candidate for endangered species listing due to habitat and population fragmentation coupled with inadequate regulation to control development in critical areas. Conservation planning would benefit from accurate maps delineating required habitats and movement corridors.
Isaak, D, S. Wenger, E. Peterson, J. V. Hoef, C. Luce, D. Nagel, S. Hostetler, J. Dunham, J. Kershner, B. Roper, D. Horan, G. Chandler, S. Parkes, and S. Wollrab. 2015. NorWeST stream temperature model: Data structure, covariates, and applications. EPA Region 10 webinar. February 11.
These GIS data are intended to assist users in understanding general patterns in bull trout distributions and inferring potential alteration of these distributions with changes in future mean annual air temperatures. The data have been developed specifically for bull trout and are not intended for use with other aquatic organisms unless similar linkages with air temperatures can be established. The data are most appropriate for broad scale displays and inference (i.e., map scales ~ 1:1,000,000) and should not be applied at finer scales, where local conditions may cause significant deviati
Range-wide network of priority areas for greater sage-grouse - a design for conserving connected distributions or isolating individual zoos?
Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm Mountain Time / 10:00-11:00 am Pacific Time
Hosts: Pacific Northwest Climate Change Collaboration (C3) and Great Northern LCC
Presenter: Dan Isaak, Research Fisheries Scientist, Boise Aquatic Research Lab, Rocky Mountain Research Station, US Forest Service
Ecological Minimums Required by Greater Sage-grouse Metadata Webpage
Ecological Minimums Required by Greater Sage-grouse Project Webpage
The imminent demise of montane species is a recurrent theme in the climate change literature, particularly for aquatic species that are constrained to networks and elevational rather than latitudinal retreat as temperatures increase. Predictions of widespread species losses, however, have yet to be fulfilled despite decades of climate change, suggesting that trends are much weaker than anticipated and may be too subtle for detection given the widespread use of sparse water temperature datasets or imprecise surrogates like elevation and air temperature.
Webinar: Mapping basic requirements for greater sage-grouse
The Washington Connected Landscapes Project: Statewide Analysis presented a vision for a connected network of habitats for wildlife in current condition. This climate-gradient corridor analysis and report adds a climate change lens to that assessment, by identifying corridors intended to improve the ability of wildlife and their habitats to respond to future changes in climate.
This document is an addendum to the Washington Connected Landscapes Project: Columbia Plateau Climate-Gradient Corridor Analysis (WHCWG 2013a; available from http://waconnected.org). It includes supplemental maps and guidance that can help prioritize and implement connectivity conservation actions that may benefit species under climate change. The analyses presented in the addendum build upon the climate-gradient corridors modeled for the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion and a surrounding buffer area (Fig. 1; WHCWG 2013a).
Washington Connected Landscapes Project: Statewide Analysis Summary Report
These data are an appended version of the Landscape Integrity Core Areas vector map developed as part of the Washington Habitat Connectivity Working Group (2010) landscape integrity analysis. The average mean annual temperature, standard deviation of mean annual temperature, and additional statistics were calculated for the pixels in each core area and appended to the core area attribute table.
The Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group is an open scientific collaborative effort to produce connectivity and tools for Washington and surrounding habitats. The Washington Connected Landscapes Project is the name for the suite of analysis and tools being produced by the working group.
These data represent a normalized least-cost corridor mosaic (see WHCWG 2010 and McRae and Kavanagh 2011) calculated using temperature gradients following the climate gradient linkage-modeling methods outlined in Nunez (2011), using an adapted version of the Linkage Mapper software (McRae and Kavanagh 2011). These data are depicted in Figure 5a in Nunez (2011).
These data represent a normalized least-cost corridor mosaic (see WHCWG 2010 and McRae and Kavanagh 2011) calculated using temperature gradients and a landscape integrity resistance raster following the climate gradient linkage-modeling methods outlined in Nuñez (2011), using an adapted version of the Linkage Mapper software (McRae and Kavanagh 2011). These data are depicted in Figure 5b in Nuñez (2011).
You may need WebEx capabilities to view these recordings.
Webinar: Washington Connected Landscapes Project - Statewide Analysis
Montana CAP (Crucial Areas Assessment Web) Informational Web Page
As the climate changes, human land use may impede species from tracking areas with suitable
climates. Maintaining connectivity between areas of different temperatures could allow organisms to move
along temperature gradients and allow species to continue to occupy the same temperature space as the
climate warms. We used a coarse-filter approach to identify broad corridors for movement between areas
where human influence is low while simultaneously routing the corridors along present-day spatial gradients
Gnarly Landscape Utilities is an ArcGIS toolbox designed to support some of the less-glamorous tasks involved with connectivity modeling. It includes tools for creating resistance and habitat layers and core area mapping. The core area mapping functionality was formerly packaged as the HCA Toolkit.
The HCA toolkit is a GIS tool designed to support regional wildlife habitat connectivity analyses by automating the process of identifying habitat concentration areas (HCAs). HCAs are areas on the landscape between which patterns of connectivity are evaluated. The habitat areas identified by this toolkit may be used as an input for Linkage Mapper to model connectivity between HCAs.
Linkage Mapper uses GIS maps of core habitat areas and resistances to identify and map linkages between core areas. Each cell in a resistance map is attributed with a value reflecting the energetic cost, difficulty, or mortality risk of moving across that cell. Resistance values are typically determined by cell characteristics, such as land cover or housing density, combined with species-specific landscape resistance models. As animals move away from specific core areas, cost-weighted distance analyses produce maps of total movement resistance accumulated.
Website: Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group
Montana Crucial Areas Assessment (CAP)s Interactive Map
To enhance communications and information exchange on landscape-level conservation efforts, the Great Northern LCC has developed an online resource directory containing descriptions of landscape initiatives and organizations that conduct conservation work within the Great Northern geographic area. The resource directory is a work in progress. The initial list for the Organizations Directory is comprised of organizations on the GNLCC Steering Committee.
MT Connectivity Project Final Report - 2011
Climate change is having significant effects on organisms and ecosystems worldwide, but changes in the western nited States have been particularly rapid over the last 30 years. Resource managers in the West are being asked o manage for ecological responses to climate, but they have limited access to regional or local information on he observed and projected effects of climate change.
Workshop relating to the recorded webinar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnlQITVfZiI
This region-wide coordinated bird monitoring program, supported by state, federal, tribal, nongovernmental organizations, and a statewide bird conservation partnership, is designed to provide spatially-referenced baseline data for science-based biological planning and conservation design for the Great Northern LCC and its partners that is directly comparable with other landscapes and Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs).
2013 Idaho Bird Conservation Partnership Development, Workshop
Climate change impacts many species through shifts in habitat. The intensity of this impact will depend on the dispersal rates of the species, the patchiness of the environment, and the velocity of habitat change. Here we examine how dispersal affects projected future habitat availability for a threatened carnivore, the fisher (Pekania [Martes] pennanti). We used non-invasive genetic sampling to detect fisher across their historical distribution in Montana and Idaho. This survey included 4846 non-invasive hair snares, of which 288 identified fishers through mitochondrial DNA analysis.
The fisher (Pekania pennanti; formerly known as Martes pennanti) is a North American endemic mustelid with a geographic distribution that spans much of the boreal forests of North America. In the Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) fishers have been the focus of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing decisions. Habitat studies of West Coast fishers in California have consistently identified late-successional forests as important, providing direct implications for forest management and fisher conservation.
Summary: What is EAGLES (Ecosystem Assessment, Geospatial Analysis & Landscape Evaluation System)? EAGLES is a PC-based series of linked software applications (decision support tools or DSTs) in user-friendly ArcGIS and web-enabled environments that allows biologists and managers direct control and access to powerful data processing and modeling capabilities.
There are six basic DSTs within EAGLES. Together they form a workflow architecture to allow practitioners:
The Wyoming Interagency Spatial Database & Online Management (WISDOM) System is a user-friendly tool allowing any interested individual to discover, consider, and assess Wyoming’s wildlife resources.
WISDOM is intended to provide landscape-level information during the early stages of project planning. It does not replace or supersede site specific analysis with appropriate agencies. It should be used in concert with all available data and expertise to ensure project plans address wildlife and habitat conservation at all levels.
2010 Annual Report: Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR): 2010 Annual Report
2012 Idaho Bird Conservation Partnership Development, Workshop